Arsenal 2-1 Fulham - 13/08/07 - (Premier League) 13 August, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Premiership.trackback
First thing first, the underground are wankers. Not only is because of them we had a stupid kick off time of 12:00 on a Sunday, but they also made me 20 minutes late for the fucking game. I went to my local station to find it was bloody closed with some stupid bus replacement service, I wasn’t going to wait for that so I had to go to another station miles away where I knew my ticket would cost double. When I finally got there I realised I’d forgotten my fucking railcard so it was even more over priced.
Then I had to wait half an hour for a train into central London. The station was full of United and Chelsea fans making their ways to their home grounds. I swear about 20 people saw me in my Arsenal shirt and said something along the lines of: “Aren’t you playing at 12? You’re gonna miss the game.” I didn’t take too kindly to these comments. Now there are a number of things that really annoy me in life…I hate waiting for trains, I can’t stand missing a single second of an Arsenal match and I hate Manchester United and Chelsea. I wasn’t in a great mood.
When I finally got to Highbury and Islington I started running to the ground and as I passed a pub they had Sky Sports News on and it came up: Arsenal 0-1 Fulham. I just stopped and stood there with my mouth open I couldn’t believe it. The guy was saying something about a terrible Lehmann fuck-up. So by the time I finally reached the ground my temper was at it’s highest setting and I was fucking exhausted, not being the fittest of people running in the ground in the sun.
So yeah I finally got there and we playing the team I pretty much expected with Hleb behind RVP but with Flamini in for Gilberto. We seemed to be on top of the game but Fulham were frustrating us really well. We had a number of decent attacks and some good shots but the reserve Fulham ‘keeper Warner was making some excellent saves. I found out after the game that Auntie Niemi got injured in the pre-match warm up but his replacement was having a blinder.
Half-time came and Fulham were very lucky to still be leading really. I wasn’t too worried at this stage as we had 45 minutes to go…and we only score this end. I saw Fulham’s goal Lehmann’s stupid mistake in the half time highlights. I couldn’t believe it, what a twat. Why did he pass it to the other side? Jesus.
The second half continued much the same and it was incredibly frustrating to watch. Could we lose to Fulham again? Well it was getting more and more likely and you wondered if it just wasn’t going to be our day.
Wenger threw on some more attacking players in the hope to find a goal; just after the hour Walcott came off for Eboue, and Bender replaced Rosicky 10 minutes later. Bendtner looked sharp and was winning all the headers as usual. Theo wasn’t as impressive as I thought he might’ve been after seeing him in pre-season but he was still causing Fulham problems. Toure and Gallas were getting forward too now, we needed a goal. Toure was really getting between the Fulham defence and for a while he looked our best player going forward.
In the end it was him that earnt us the goal. Kolo picked up the ball in Fulham’s half and drove into the box past a few defenders. I thought he might go all the way but his was brought down in the area and it was a fair penalty. Robin Van Persie placed the ball down and the whole stadium were biting their fingernails as he ran up to take it. It was a fantastic penalty screaming into he roof of the net, unstoppable for Warner. The goal lifted the fans and for the final 7 minutes of normal time the crowd were at full voice urging on a winning goal.
And it came…in the 90th minute…from Alex Hleb. Perfect. It was a really well taken goal by Hleb actually. He took down a long ball and sent the goalie the wrong way placing it in the corner. A great goal by Hleb and I hope there’s more to come. Ashburton Grove went mad apart from the Fulham corner who started filtering out.
It was a very frustrating game to watch. If you hadn’t of know you would’ve thought it was still last season. Nothing’s changed. In the end it was a great opening weekend for us: We got all three points, Tottenham lost to Sunderland in the last minute and 10-man Reading held Man United to a 0-0 draw in a game which Rooney picked up another foot injury which’ll see him out for two months. Lovely. Birmingham were unlucky not to cause an upset too at Stamford Bridge, but Chelsea were 3-2 winners.
Thanks for reading. Next game is Sparta away on Wednesday; build up to that to come.
Any idea why Diaby did not feature?
good post
Jens Lehmann - 4.5 - I am sure he is relieved as the Arsenal managed to show why the comeback kings tag was ever so popular last year. I was not really surprised at his brain excursion burdened our back 4 as early as 51st second, but I was also confident that he’ll come good in the end. And so he did, managing to come up with some nice saves that came from the Fulham counter attacks. Another one like that and he’ll be nailed to the bench.
Bacary Sagna - 6.5 A solid debut for Baca. Was not troubled that much, and played some good attacking football sending in a good 1st half cross for a red shirt to shoot wide and an excellent 1-2 with Manu Eboue that created some openings. Defensively. he was quite safe and did show a few nice tackles. Positionally, he still needs to learn or adapt to the pace, but from what I saw, he seems to be able to cope well with it as well as the power of the EPL.
Kolo Toure - 8 - Kolo amazes me. Julio Baptista should immediately renounce his nickname and transfer it to Kolo, as he truly is a massive presence at the back and a force to be reckoned with. He came up with a couple of mazy runs (probably out of frustration) one of which led to the penalty from Bocanegra.
Bill Gallas - 7.5 - Compliments to Gallas who led this young defence with much authority. No mistakes, very organized and disciplined, Bill Gallas showed why he is a good choice for a new captain
Gael Clichy - 7 - Standard high level, tempo, sprinting up and down the left flank. I am really fond of Gael’s game, but on a couple of occasions he was caught out of position or flat footed.
Eboue - 5.5 - one of the worst games I’ve ever seen him play for Arsenal. Apart from one or two glimpses of his ability, he was a passenger in this game. His passing was poor, he was without ideas, and he rarely was a threat. Didn’t do a lot of backtracking either. Deservedly subbed in 62′ by Theo Walcott.
Cesc - 7 - some say that he was very quiet, and that may be true, but his touch of brilliance and his pass to Alex Hleb was enough to leave a mark - and give us the 3 pts (along with Alex’s cool finish). He did not look settled at all but laboured and put in some strong tackles. Took a couple of long range shots, none on target.
Flamini - 6.5 - Flamini’s performance can be summed up with one scene: him (with a little help from Cesc Fabregas) giving Warner a stereo experience of the French-Spanish-English version of ‘give-us-the-ball-ye-(c)***’ a traditional saying passed on by generations. Booked for this. Again I will say Matty has been drinking something during the off-season, his 1st touch has improved and the short passing is not always too short, on the contrary - his passes are accurate and with pace. He did his usual 110% effort and closed down opponents fairly well. Passionate and hard-working.
Rosicky - 7.5 - Tommy got into great shooting positions but his targeting was off. Especially early in the 2nd half when he latched onto a long ball, chested it down and shot straight at Warner. His link-up play was solid as ever and he did fine in fulfilling his defensive tasks as well. Subbed by Bendtner in 72′.
Alex Hleb - 9 - Man of the Match in my eyes. 1st half was better than 2nd, he had a clear penalty ‘not seen’ by Dowd, and thus Lawrie accused us of diving. Garbage I say. He was denied by Zat Knight a certain goal, and was killing their RB over and over again, going past him and cutting the ball inside looking for a red shirt. He dropped a bit in the 2nd half as marking was tighter, but how about that finish right at the death? Most of the moves in attack involved him and he took his regular share of kicks from behind. 9 to go Alex.
RvP - 7.5 - When he went down after that collision with Warner I was desperate. He was clutching his knee and it looked scary. Robin was overwhelmed and isolated in attack, and was denied space. When he did find it on a few occasions on through passes, his usually impeccable 1st touch betrayed him and had to settle for a pass where in other conditions he would blast a couple. His free kicks were inches wide and the penalty was unsaveable even for Tony ‘Three Hands’ Warner. Only after Bendtner was introduced did he have more space to operate. Subbed by Alex Song in the added time.
Subs:
Theo Walcott - 6 - took over from Eboue and continued in a similar manner. I got annoyed when he was isolated on the wing with 6′6 Zat Knight and didn’t skin him. I don’t know if he was mentally unprepared, was it lack of confidence in his skill or something else. It’s make or break for him this season and he needs to find his feet and start attacking opponents with confidence. The sooner the better.
Nick Bendtner - 7.5 - here is one who does not lack confidence AT ALL. Although on the pitch for a mere 20 minutes, he did some great things, won headers, held up the ball well and managed to squeeze a powerful strike in the box from a very difficult situation with his back towards the goal. Impressive.
Alex Song - excellent run to the midfield from the touchline and great celebration with his teammates.
Bendtner should be playing often in a 4-4-2 formation with Alex on the left, replacing Tomas there. Tomas just shoot on sight without proper targeting as last season, always off target. Since Ade is also wasteful, Arsene should push Bendtner forward. He can score 15 goals a season if given enough games. He should start against Blackburn ‘cos of his physical presence. RVP had less impact ‘cos he was left alone and became an easy target to mark. Bendtner should partner RVP upfront against Sparta on Wednesday, he’ll be the revelation this season.
Wenger should pls try and sign pedersen, he will be a great addition into the club
@harlan
i disagree with your comments on rosicky … he had 2 good shots on target that were saved by warner.. any other day, any other goal keeper, one of them would have gone in … did you actually see the game ??? all he needs to do is polish his understanding with clichy … hleb was fantastic last night though … and bendtner as well …
eboue and lemon were crap … wenger needs to coach clichy and walcott on finishing runs better with accurate deliveries .. most of the runs ended in nothing …
DesiGooner
http://desigooner.blogspot.com
When Eduardo and Ade gets fit, Wenger will have another big decision to make. Play 4-4-1-1 with hleb in his best posn. Or play 4-4-2 with hleb playing on left/right.
great win, great spirit n resilliance 2 come back, main thing for the 1st couple of games is to win and we’ll eventually get into our stride i’m not worried about that. what really pissed me off in a big way was sanchez’s comment’s after the game, was he watching the same game? hleb didnt dive once…he’s not the biggest guy in the world hleb and it wouldnt take that much to get him knocked over, he is no cheat. he had the audacity to bring up the premier league meeting talking about cutting down on simulation saying wenger was there too and shudve took note…and THEN, to have the BALLS, to say his player had been “clearly tripped” in the box by fabregas just was the tip of the iceberg 4 me, he clearly TRIPPED OVER HIMSELF, sour pratt. I genuinly hope his side get relegated he’s put the game in disrepute in my view and he should be dealt with by the f.a. If there’s one thing arsenal are not, it’s cheats..our team couldnt be more honest compared to every other 1 in the league.
hey cannon, my condolences on the underground.
at least be thankful there weren’t leaves on the line.
Be thankful you at least get to see it. It sure beats Sopcast at 7AM. I swear five minutes before the game I went to get some tea and toast and when I came down to watch the game they had already scored…I was like WTF!
[...] Arsenal 2-1 Fulham - 13/08/07 - (Premier League) [image] First thing first, the underground are wankers. Not only is because of them we had a stupid kick off time of […] [...]
before the season started, i was thinking arsenal may just have the team that could win something big this season
but after seeing the opening game, i have changed my mind
i know its only early days, but i just cant see them doing it
….
Lets talk honestly.
Cesc is only 50% of his normal standard.
Gallas and Toure left too many gaps.
Rosicky does some good things and at the end shoots wide or passes inefctively.
Walcott has just slid backwards.
RVP needs help up front and he can get moody very easily.
Sagna and Clichy are good.
Ebuoe could still make it on the right.
Hleb has improved in his new role.
Flamini is a good squad player but lacks some of Gilbertos skills.
Bednter is improving all the time and should always come off the bench and start in hard away games.
We have a very high loss of players through training injuries, Sam Allardyce at Bolton had specialised medical staff, and he reduced lost player time to a bare minmum. Are we doing womething wrong in training?
We need a winger, and a stronger squad
Spot on commentary.. game was extremely frustrating. You would think that on our furst game of the season, the place would be electric. If it wasnt for Fulhams support, there may have been none at all. We really need to get behind our team from the start. “We only sing when were winning”… I was really dissappointed with the atmosphere. We as fans are yet to make this stadium ours. The team has, but we havent.
As for the game itself, I agree completeley that it was last season all over again. Could have been 4-0 up, but we’re 1-0 down. Frustration being a huge understatement. I am happy we showed the same resolve as we did during pre-season, but I would prefer us not having to show it at all. We were not ruthless enough in front of the net. AW said we created more chances last year than we did during the Invincibles season. Difference is we finished them during our famous season. Last year we didnt, hence Eduardo. If we can finish and defend as a team(and no more Jens gifts..) then we should be challenging for the Prem. If we dont….
solgooner: Allardyce got all his techniques from AW. AW came along and introduced spealised treatments, medical staff, diet, trainig technique, turf management, life coaches, psychotherapists.,..
this blog has gone down hill
has not. i like reading this blog cuz most of the times the author is actually at the games! (unlike some other popular arsenal bloggers)
sanchez has just admitted he was wrong with his comments. credit where credit is due. Eduardo and Ade definately out for wed, so we’re looking at another game behind the striker for hleb. I hope it doesnt go on for too long and eduardo can shake off his ankle problem sooner rather than later. Would like to see bendtner with van persie upfront to stop him being so isolated and alone upfront, so never know he could get a start tommorow.
Arsenal will beat Sparta 2-0
Goals from Flamini & Rosicky
[...] in the beginning, it started very badly. Jens Lehmann let in a ridiculous goal against Fulham in the first few minutes of the season. Things had got off to the worst possible start but we came [...]